PETITION BACKGROUND The St. Paul Public School District is in crisis. Daily headlines reporting student-on-student and student-on-teacher violence resulting from Valeria Silva’s failed disciplinary policies are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. We can no longer tolerate unsafe learning conditions in our schools. Our children have a right to safe and productive classrooms. Additionally, we can no longer tolerate the draconian methods of threat and intimidation of our dedicated teachers by the Silva administration. Teachers are afraid to speak out for fear of public reprisal, suspension and loss of their employment. Valeria Silva has lost the trust, faith and respect of too many education professionals in the district to be an effective leader. Furthermore, Silva’s continued incompetence is putting our teachers and children at great risk; as a result, families have begun to send their children out of the district in response to the downward spiral in the quality of St. Paul’s educational infrastructure. The children, parents, teachers, and community members of St. Paul deserve a Superintendent who leads with integrity and honor in Minnesota’s capital city. Silva is clearly not that leader. Her tenure as Superintendent has been nothing less than an embarrassment to the city of St. Paul, and a great travesty for our children, who deserve a high-quality education free from the threat of violence and harm. Our teachers and administrative staff deserve respect and the freedom to meet students’ needs with innovative, compassionate and supported instruction and assistance. We, the undersigned, demand Silva resign immediately. If she will not, we demand the School Board remove her and replace her with a competent leader with the skills, temperament, and personal integrity to provide effective leadership for the St. Paul Public School District.

This petition is created to send the citizens message to our school board of the vote of no confidence and lack of trust of the Valeria Silvia leadership team and the direction of her present reign. The massive exodus of families, her decisions on spending taxpayers monies, and the lack of direction with curriculum that focus our youth for college, school safety issues caused by her disrespect with cutting the support needed to manage or address these concerns that her leadership has caused. She has shown that she is inept and vengeful her approaches to address the above situations.

CEO Eric Gordon and the CMSD team walked away from negotiations with the Cleveland Teachers Union on February 17, 2016. With six weeks of previously agreed upon meeting dates remaining, the district chose to put the fate of the Cleveland schools in the hands of a third party Fact Finder. These negotiations are not about money. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District must acknowledge the real issues that members face every day and that these issues can be resolved. The teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers want the district to walk back to the table for serious discussions about real issues in our schools. The members of the Cleveland Teachers Union want their concerns heard, understood, and resolved. CEO Gordon and his team need to do their jobs and walk back to the table to negotiate.

NIFDI wants to know how various decisions regarding the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) were made. In July of 2013 ago we filed a Freedom of Information act (FOIA) request to the Department of Education, which oversees the WWC. Some, but not all of the requested information was received. The initial information revealed that the WWC suffers from a lack of transparency in their policies and guidelines, the conclusions they create in their reports can be misleading, and the reports are potentially damaging to program developers and ultimately the success of students. (See http://www.nifdi.org/research/reviews-of-di/what-works-clearinghouse for more information on the WWC as revealed through FOIA-released documents.) We have made 2 appeal requests to the Department of Education under the Freedom of Information Act to receive the information that was not sent to us initially, to no avail. According to their rules, the DOE needs to provide us the information requested within 20 days, and if not possible, then a timeline for responding to our appeal must be provided. We have been trying to resolve this for over 16 months. That's why I created a petition to Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-4) to get the DOE to follow the law and send us the information per our FOIA request. DeFazio's office has been only semi-responsive on this issue and needs to know that our request is critical for kids, decision-makers and the field of education in general. Once we have at least 50 signatures from DeFazio constituents the petition will be forwarded. Please send this on to anyone who lives in the 4th district and ask that they join us.

Many kids struggle because the content that schools teach is either too hard or too easy. Students should be able to move at their own pace in school.

This petition has been started because the current incumbent Valeria Silva has constantly demonstrated her inability to drive improvements in local St Paul schools. Her inability to make changes to benefit the teachers and students include, but are not limited to, rapid increase in violence towards students and teachers; the lack of support for teachers; the removal of disciplinary actions for violent students, and the lack of transparency between her and protagonists such as Rashad Turner. The teachers and students of public schools in St. Paul, Minnesota require a new leader, someone that will uphold the need for discipline within schools. St. Paul needs a leader that can directly empower teachers to do what they are best at and to foster a safe environment within our schools. The position that Silva currently occupies requires someone that can stand up to those who want to disrupt schools by illegal protests, and fosters respect for the teaching institution.

For almost 20 years, Parents for Public Schools has been lobbying our elected officials to make fair school funding a priority. With an ever decreasing tax base and an increase in the number of children living in poverty in Syracuse, the impact of funding inequity has reached crisis proportions. The Syracuse City School District is dependent on the state for the majority of the school funding and the residents do not vote for a school budget. It’s time to take the politics out of funding education and make sure all schools receive the resources their students need.

Along with the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts, I have been working to educate and advocate for SEL because when we argue about test scores, charter vs. public and longer school days, we are losing sight of the gravity of education and the impact it could have on violence and addictions. Let's send a message to focus on WHAT we teach and WHO is teaching, not WHERE we teach it. Teach about emotion and thought and its impact on our decision-making.

Those who attend Fordham LC generally have three complaints about the campus: the food is terrible, the internet barely works and there is not a gym that fulfills their needs. Because two of these issues are not being addressed, it is time that the Fordham LC student community finally be heard. The reason Fordham administration claims there is not a real gym on campus is because free weights and other equipment cannot be used on the second floor of buildings. Fortunately enough, Quinn Library is being moved from what is basically a basement to the new Gabelli Business building. This is where a gym should be built. Even if half of Quinn was converted into a gym, it would still be a major improvement to the tiny room Fordham claims to be a gym in McMahon Hall. Even further, this gym would exponentially improve the health of students on campus and eliminate the need for them to pay additional membership fees for gyms throughout NYC.

After the third schedule change, TN Ready testing is set to begin Monday, March 14, but some schools still don't have their supplies. Kids, parents, teachers and administrators are sick of dealing with this - enough is enough.

Mayor Kenney has proposed important initiatives that will directly benefit the education of children in Philadelphia, which will have broader benefits to society. Community schools can help to meet the comprehensive needs that children have - from social, emotional and health needs, to extended and enhanced learning, such as extended learning time and quality Pre-K. There are economic and social benefits when we improve conditions for children. Resource equity matters too - and for that, you need to make investments. Mayor Kenney's proposed tax on sugary drinks is a reasonable way to fund these programs that can have a real impact on quality of life and learning conditions.

My daughter and her friends have been coming from school more exhausted than usual, due to not having access to swings, climbing structures and slides during recess at the new building. A longer recess would allow them to travel to one of many parks near the new building and be ready to learn again.